1. Field of the Invention
This invention involves movable, free-standing support apparatus for medical and other applications and, more specifically, involves a very stable support stand adapted for storage and shipment in an efficient flat pack configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
The mobile support stand is well-known in the art and has been used for many years in the medical and hospital environment. The typical mobile support stand provides a long vertical support post mounted on a broad wheeled base. The support post is often equipped with a variety of mounting means for supporting medical apparatus and therapeutic products. The wheeled base is designed to permit efficient movement from room to room while also providing firm and stable support to the central support post during use. The urgent nature of some medical care introduces a risk of tipping or upsetting of the entire support stand that must be minimized through careful design of the supporting base. Because medical support stands are used in a medical treatment environment, the support stand and related equipment must be easy to clean reliably and to keep hygienic. This is especially true with intravenous (IV) support stands because of the substantial opportunity for spills and contamination of the supporting apparatus.
The design of mobile support stands for use in medical applications is governed by these requirements for stability, mobility, rapid deployment and hygienic maintenance. Unfortunately, these constraints have heretofore led to a number of bulky and cumbersome designs by practitioners in the art. When such a typical mobile support stand design is packed for shipment by the manufacturer, it must either be boxed in a large container with substantial empty space or it must be broken down and laboriously assembled at destination with skilled labor. Both of these options adds to the cost of the support stand.
The bulky and wasteful shipping requirements of the typical factory-assembled medical support stand adds to medical equipment procurement cost in an era when increasing medical costs are anathema. The shipment of a disassembled medical support stand for assembly at destination by untrained personnel is also undesirable because of the risks of improper assembly, which can lead to awkward deployment and physical instability during use in medical emergencies. Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a mobile support stand design that can be packed and shipped in an efficient configuration with minimal wasted space and that can be quickly and reliably assembled at destination by unskilled labor. Such an apparatus must meet all stability, mobility, rapid deployment and hygienic maintenance requirements for medical support stands.
Previous attempts by practitioners in the art to solve this problem have met with limited success. FIG. 1 illustrates three types of post-base joints. Attempts to provide a base having a threaded hole for receiving the central supporting post, illustrated in FIG. 1C, experienced poor stability and insufficient strength at the threaded joint between the parts. With even the most robust of such designs, medical and body fluids can seep into the threaded joint at the base of the support stand where they create a hygienic hazard and cannot be removed without complete disassembly and diligent cleansing.
Other designs employing welded or unistructure joints, where the central post is permanently joined to the supporting base as shown in FIG. 1A, cannot be disassembled for flat packing and must be packed in large bulky containers with substantial wasted space. The need for stability requires the use of a large, heavy wheeled base not readily adaptable for hinging or collapsing.
FIG. 1B illustrates an attempt by the Japanese to solve this problem. Although new to the art, this design, using a base with a tapered hole and an upright support pole with an internal weld nut that is engaged with a bolt and pulled into the hole in the base, has several deficiencies. The center of gravity of the base was elevated to allow enough depth to engage a sufficient length of the support pole for the requisite strength. This raises the center of gravity of the entire support stand, reducing stability. This design also creates a non-hygienic condition where medical and body fluids and debris can accumulate in the recess formed between the support pole and the base.
Other designers presented with the problem of producing a shippable support stand have been unable to discover an acceptable solution. All configurations using a base-post joint known in the prior art fail to meet or exceed the stability, mobility, rapid deployment and hygienic maintenance requirements. These unresolved problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved in the present invention in the manner described below.